Chapter – Ashes and Oaths

I don’t remember how long we sat there, Lucien and I, tangled in each other’s arms while the world behind us burned.

The smoke made it hard to breathe, but it didn’t matter.

He was alive.

His heart thumped against my chest, a raw, steady drumbeat of survival. Of defiance. Of love that had crawled through fire to find its way back to me.

And I couldn’t stop crying.

His fingers brushed over my back, trembling. “You okay?” he whispered into my hair.

“No,” I breathed. “But you’re here.”

We didn’t need more words than that.

Paramedics arrived first, their red lights cutting through the...